Captured

Two weeks later:

Kei's eyes scoured the tavern at the Adventurers Guild. His gaze eventually landed on a party: one man in plate mail with a thick mustache, and two others—one a small, dainty gnome with a white staff and white hair, the other a rabbit man with long black ears and hair.

Kei approached the group. “Good day.”

The mustached man grunted. “Need something?”

Kei gulped and locked eyes with the man.

“I was wondering if you needed a magician in your party?”

The mustached man examined him closely. “Aren't you that newbie who got soaked in slime a couple weeks ago?”

Kei cleared his throat. “Uh, yes, that was me.” He looked away.

The mustached man let out a low grumble of a laugh. “We don't need a newbie getting us killed. Try somewhere else.”

Kei let out a sigh and walked away.

“Damn, another group that doesn’t want me.”

He approached the D–C ranked quest board. He sifted through the easy quests and grabbed a slip.

“Please eliminate five slimes in my cornfield.”

Kei groaned.

“These quests suuuck.”

He examined the map on the back and quickly left the guild. He followed the map out of the city and a half-hour down the main road. He turned onto a dirt track and trudged down the road, groaning.

Upon reaching the house in question, he rapped his knuckles on the front door. The only thing he heard back was silence. He knocked again.

“Tch, figures. Must be out.”

Kei turned and began wading through the cornfield, searching for the slimes in question. After an hour of carefully searching, he found a bunch of broken corn stalks. Five slimes bounced happily on top of them, spreading their slime all over the place.

Kei extended his staff. He channeled mana through it, then waved it up into the air.

“Hail Shower.”

He cast it toward the slimes. Massive balls of hail came crashing down, killing them instantly.

“Wowee, another day of killing slimes.”

He dipped a piece of parchment in the slime as proof, turned around, and returned to the house. He knocked on the door, hoping for an answer.

“Hello?”

Silence.

Kei groaned. “Alright, screw you then.”

He turned around. As he stepped onto the road, five men jumped out of the bushes around him and surrounded him.

Kei jerked back, staff raised. His chest tightened, heart hammering against his ribs as he channeled some mana, but someone quickly brought a knife up to his throat.

“If you wanna keep your life, drop the staff,” the voice was raspy and harsh.

Kei slowly dropped the staff. It fell to the ground and hit the soft soil.

“Now your backpack.”

Kei lifted his arms above his head. Another thug lifted it over his shoulders, while another checked his pockets.

The man with the knife pressed closer. The blade dug a little deeper into Kei’s flesh.

“Now walk. No funny business, or I'll gut you like a fish.”

Kei gulped and slowly started walking forward. His heart pounded; his palms were sweaty.

“Oh shit, oh fuck, this is why I need a group.”

The man continued barking orders for him to change directions. Kei examined them out of his peripheral vision. They looked exactly like the stereotypical bandits.

Soon, they arrived at a camp, with a few other men on sentry duty.

Bet the new boy’ll scream real nice tonight.

Oh yeah, he’s a screamer for sure.

The men laughed. They unlocked a cage with some other people inside—a family with some young teenage girls, and a few other miscellaneous people of varying races.

The man who'd been barking orders pushed Kei inside and slammed the door behind him. His head crashed into the other side. Kei hit the dirt.

The man carefully examined everyone in the cage. He had short blonde hair and a short beard.

“Aye, I think these ones will fetch a high price.”

Kei gulped.

Oh fuck no, I can't become a slave now, he thought.

He waited for attention to be off the cage. He watched as one bandit played with his staff, while another fished through his gear in the backpack.

Kei carefully examined the cage. It was steel—strong and sturdy. He examined the other people inside.

He sat down and tried to think of a way out of this mess. The bandits ignored them. A few hours passed.

Kei let out a sigh.

“I wonder if Satori will come and search for me. How would he even find me? Would he even notice I'm gone through all the damned drinking and whoring he does?”

As the sun started to slowly set, Kei continued to sit and think.

“Maybe I can charge an Ice Lance in my hand and wait for them to open it to let someone in or out? But then, I'd have to deal with the rest.”

Kei carefully counted them.

“Eleven. I don't like my odds. Even if I get my staff, they’ll cut my head off before I get through even three of them.”

He examined the lock.

“I could blast the lock with water magic. But then what? Chaos. They’d all run, and a lot of them would get killed. I need a better way.”

Kei grunted.

“If only I studied harder, I'd have more spells to help me get out of this mess…”

As the sun sank completely, some of the bandits looked toward the cage with lecherous eyes.

“Who are we having first, boss?”

The man who’d put the dagger to Kei’s throat earlier spoke.

“I'm not into the young ones. Maybe the farmer's wife? She's got a nice ass.”

One of the men grinned. “I know who I'm picking. The new boy you just brought in. I bet his ass will be a tight fit.”

Kei gulped.

Over my dead body, asshole, he thought. He shivered; just the idea disgusted him.

The boss approached the gate and unlocked it. He handed the lock to one of his friends, reached in, and grabbed the farmer's wife by the hair.

She kicked and screamed as he dragged her out of the cage. Kei gritted his teeth; a fire lit up in his eyes.

“Raping women is cowardly, assholes! When I'm done with you, I'm gonna castrate all of you pricks with a hot knife!”

The men laughed. You could still hear the screams of the woman as she was dragged away. The bandit who’d targeted Kei earlier approached and punched him in the face.

“I like it when they got bite.”

He punched Kei again. And again. Then dragged him out by his ankles.

Suddenly, a loud explosion went off.

The men looked around in confusion. Kei charged an Ice Lance in his hand and threw it at the bandit dragging him away.

The Ice Lance punched straight through his skull. Blood squirted out and soaked the ice. The bandits looked on in shock.

Kei quickly rose to his feet. As he did, he saw a party of adventurers charging into the camp. Kei snatched up his staff, magic flaring in his hands, and sprinted toward the screams.